Isolde takes some sun.
Hawkwatcher Ludie Stern checked out the doings at the Cathedral on her lunch hour today. And yes, I did see copulation last Thursday, if today was any measure. Ludie watched the act yet again this afternoon, on the north-most green roof of the Plant Pavilion, a portion of St. Luke's Hospital. The hawks did not then sit together as some of the other pairs do regularly after copulation. But rather, as they did on Thursday, kept to separate perches immediately after copulation.
New Guy keeps his back turned.
The scaffolding surrounding St. Andrew and the nest.
Will Simmons of Fort Worth, asked--
Scaffolding around the nest statue was mentioned on one of the Hawk blogs. I don't remember which. Do you have a photo? Will the scaffolding be a problem?
Will,
To tell you the truth, as Isolde has not gone to sit a nest as yet, we can't be positive that the hawks will use the St. Andrew nest. Though as far as I know, no one has reported seeing them work on an alternative site.
It’s my thought that if the current scaffolding were too big a problem for the hawks, that they might well reject the current site and quick whip up a new nest in another location. That is, if they could find a good alternative site. In most territories that isn’t any easy task, in fact often nearly impossible, but the Cathedral and St. Luke’s Hospital buildings are both older decorative buildings which have a greater chance of supplying possible sites.
It isn’t known if the scaffolding will stay in its current configuration through the breeding season, or how much work might be done near the nest in the coming months. Our hope is that everyone concerned will be sensitive to the hawks needs.
It’s my thought that if the current scaffolding were too big a problem for the hawks, that they might well reject the current site and quick whip up a new nest in another location. That is, if they could find a good alternative site. In most territories that isn’t any easy task, in fact often nearly impossible, but the Cathedral and St. Luke’s hospital are both older decorative buildings which have a greater chance of supplying possible sites.
It isn’t known if the scaffolding will stay in its current configuration through the breeding season, or how much work might be done near the nest in the coming months. Our hope is that everyone concerned will be sensitive to the hawks needs.
On the plus side, the scaffolding might give the eyasses something that has been missing from the current nest site in the past. It might give them a place for “branching” experiences.
This is the phase of experience that tree nest eyasses have but most building bred eyasses don’t. Tree eyasses are able to experience short hop flights between branches while safely above ground and still return to the nest until they can actually fly well enough to gain elevation. Rather than finding themselves seriously grounded as happens with many urban eyasses fresh from the nest. Building eyasses often find themselves on a sidewalk, in the street, or other unsafe place and must find a path to bushes or small trees where they can then “branch” themselves high enough to avoid danger.
In these cases the parents are perfectly aware of the location of their stranded progeny, and usually the youngster landed just fine but after a few trees at getting into the air unsuccessfully, she hasn’t the slightest idea where to go to find some branches to climb up. The parents are vigilant, they see the problem but they don’t have the equipment to pick the eyass up and take them to safety. All they can do is watch.
Last season I spoke with Glenn Phillips, executive director of the New York City Audubon Society, about the need for an organized Eyass Watch for those nests which we know there can be real problems for the first few days after fledged eyasses have made their big maiden flight off the nest. And example of a nest that must be watched is that of Jr. and Charlotte at 888 Seventh Avenue. There was also the day when I arrived to watch the Cathedral nest and found one of the eyasses on the sidewalk, on the wrong side of the tall chain link fence that surrounds the nest site area. He ended up in the street; we stopped traffic.-- See the archives for the full story- http://palemaleirregulars.blogspot.com/2006_06_18_archive.html
and scroll down to 6/20/06
Many thanks go to Glenn Phillips and NYC Audubon for taking steps to organize a structured Eyass Watch for the upcoming season.
Donegal Browne
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